Enhanced Recovery Program in Colorectal Surgery: A Meta‐analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Meta-analyses in the literature show that enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) is associated with lower morbidity rate and shorter hospital stay after elective colorectal surgery. However, a recent Cochrane review did not indicate the ERAS pathway as being the new standard of care due to the limited number of published trials, together with their poor quality. We conducted a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess the impact of the ERAS pathway on overall morbidity, single postoperative complications, length of hospital stay, and readmission rate following colorectal surgery.

We searched BioMedCentral, PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) for RCTs comparing the ERAS pathway to conventional perioperative care. No language restrictions were considered. A quality score was calculated for each trial included.